It completed its first flight with a crew on board back in July , and Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise (a.k.a. SpaceShipTwo ) has now crossed what’s unquestionably its biggest hurdle to date: the first solo glide flight. That happened early Sunday morning at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, where the VSS Enterprise took off attached to the mothership and then separated at an altitude of 45,000 feet, after which it was freely piloted by Pete Siebold and co-pilot Mike Alsbury for a full eleven minutes before safely landing on the runway (another first for the spaceship). Oh yeah, there’s a video — head on past the break to check it out (along with the official press release). Continue reading Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise completes first solo glide flight Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise completes first solo glide flight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You Americans may not have a clue what Lovefilm means to Britons, but in short, it’s Netflix for the other side of the pond. To that end, we imagine quite a few UKers are giddy over a video that has since been pulled from Sony’s YouTube channel. We’ve embedded it after the break in case it revives itself in some magical, mystical fashion, but Everything PlayStation managed to grab the copy from underneath while it was still alive. It’s bruited that Lovefilm streaming will be coming to UK-based PS3 owners sometime this autumn, with a wealth of search options available and free trials promised for those who’ve yet to buy into the outfit’s services. We’re hoping to hear more from Sony (or Lovefilm) in short order, but for now, we’d encourage you to cross every finger you have that a dedicated disc won’t be required for everything to work. Continue reading Lovefilm looks to be headed to UK PlayStation 3 consoles Lovefilm looks to be headed to UK PlayStation 3 consoles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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A cool summer along the West Coast has made for a hurried harvest in the nation’s top winemaking regions as growers rush to beat the first frost. Vintners, however, are hopeful the late grapes will make great wine. Video Essay by Eric Risburg. (Oct. 11)
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A hearing-impaired North Carolina girl with a prosthetic leg vanished over the weekend, and her father said Monday it was possible that his wife was involved in the disappearance. (Oct. 11
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If you’ve got enough time to breathe, you’re not doing it right. Our crazy tour through Windows Phone 7 land is continuing at full pelt with the LG Optimus 7 . We must admit we were very pleasantly surprised by this handset. The 3.8-inch display is a mere LCD and the construction seems to be wholly plastic, but both seem to be punching well above the weight of their constituent elements. It’s a well chiselled, handsome, and light phone, with a trio of physical buttons at the bottom. Whether you like those will really depend on personal preference, we tend to like the clicky tactile feedback of real buttons more than the stillness of touch-sensitive capacitive keys. LG has outfitted the handset with the bone stock WP7 interface, but has augmented the offering with its own apps, namely Play-To for getting friendly with your TV over DLNA and Voice-to-Text for easing your textual inputs. We’re definitely fancying the general build quality and design, tell us what you think after checking out the pics below! Update: Video now embedded after the break. Gallery: LG Optimus 7 first hands-on! Continue reading LG Optimus 7 first hands-on (update: video!) LG Optimus 7 first hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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And it’s Samsung’s Windows Phone 7 turn! We just got to check out the Samsung Focus (formerly known as the i917 Cetus ), and if you’re looking for the WP7 version of the Galaxy S, this is your guy. The curvy, glossy slate has a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, and feels a lot like the Samsung Vibrant. AT&T’s touting that the 9.9-millimeter / .3-inch device is the slimmest Windows Phone handset yet, and we do have to say it’s pretty darn slim. We’ll be going back for more soon, but feast your eyes on the gallery and video below… Gallery: Samsung Focus first hands-on! Continue reading Samsung Focus first hands-on! Samsung Focus first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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LG’s representing the QWERTY slider sector for AT&T during this Windows Phone 7 launch with its new Quantum handset (formerly known as the C900), which goes by the Optimus 7Q moniker outside the US. It’s a little frumpy at first glance, but it’s just as impressive under the hood as the rest of this lineup, so we’ll give it some more time before we form our full impressions. Super early first impression? We love this keyboard. For now check out the gallery below. Update: There’s video after the break! Here are some thoughts: We’re very torn on the LG Quantum. From the outside you’ve got a design that can only be named as “frumpy,” with wasteful curves and rubberized edges, along with the smallest screen of the AT&T bunch. Still, slide this puppy open (if you can manage, it has a really stiff mechanism), and you’re treated with one of the best QWERTY keyboards in the business. Not only is each key nicely articulated and easily but responsively clicked, but you can really feel each key with your thumbs. It’s the touch typist’s dream, at least for the landscape orientation. Gallery: LG Quantum first hands-on! Continue reading LG Quantum first hands-on! (update: video) LG Quantum first hands-on! (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Alright, so by now we all know that HTC’s HD7 is mostly a HD2 in imperial new clothes, but let’s give the new phone a chance, shall we? We’ve just gotten to grips with the latest member of HTC’s 4.3-inch brigade and predictably enough it feels just as snappy as the rest of the Windows Phone 7 devices introduced today. Navigation is blazingly quick, interrupted only by Microsoft’s excessive fascination with animated screen transitions. Clearly, designing the new WP7 OS around hard-set minimum specs has paid off for Microsoft, whose end product exhibits a great deal of polish. T-Mobile, the HD7′s exclusive carrier in the US, is keen to point out that it’s the largest Windows Phone 7 launch device, so if size is atop your list of priorities, this will be the phone you’ll want to start your journey with. We’ve got some in-depth impressions of the hardware after the break and a video is coming right up as well. Enjoy! Update: As promised, a lengthy video exhibition of the HD7 awaits your eyeballs just past the break. Gallery: HTC HD7 first hands-on! Continue reading HTC HD7 preview (update: video!) HTC HD7 preview (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You see that? That, comrades, is what happens when Lightning strikes! Or, you know, when Venue Pro strikes. So, it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but no matter what you call Dell’s Windows Phone 7 portrait slider, it’s downright awesome. We got a chance to play around with an early build of the phone a few weeks ago — as you’ll hear us say in the video below, it was still codenamed the Lightning — and we haven’t been able to get it out of our minds since. The handset has a very similar look and feel to its Android brother, the Thunder — its rounded chrome sides are reminiscent of an iPhone 3G/S, the black contoured back has a nice grippy feel, and the curved, WVGA AMOLED, Gorilla Glass screen is just stunning. The 4.1-inch capacitive, multitouch display is joined by additional back, home and search touch-sensitive buttons, all of which seemed responsive in our short time with the device. The back is also home to a 5 megapixel cam with flash while there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the device and a micro-USB port on the bottom edge. But obviously, it’s that glorious slide-out QWERTY keyboard that makes the Venue Pro, well, so pro . The rubber-feeling keys remind us a lot of those on the Droid 2 — though, they feel a bit firmer — and the slider mechanism felt sturdy when we slid it open and closed a number of times. On the spec front, we were told it was packing a Snapdragon processor, and while the phone seemed to briskly run an early build of WP7, we didn’t get to test much out as Dell was lacking both a SIM and a nearby WiFi network. We’ll be hoping to grab some more time with the T-Mobile version today, but from what we’ve seen so far we’re fairly confident that Dell’s struck pretty darn close to gold here. Oh, and don’t forget to hit the break for a short video walkthrough of the hardware and keyboard. Gallery: Dell Lightning / Venue Pro hands-on Continue reading Dell Venue Pro (aka Lightning) first hands-on! Dell Venue Pro (aka Lightning) first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Dell Venue Pro gives WP7 a 4.1-inch QWERTY slider with Lightning heritage and a T-Mobile future
October 11, 2010 No Comment
To say we’ve been eagerly anticipating the Dell Lightning would be an understatement along the lines of suggesting Microsoft’s launching a few Windows Phone 7 devices today. Dell’s AMOLED-equipped WP7 debut has just gone official with a cringe-worthy renaming to the Venue Pro for T-Mobile, who has in turn announced its intention to carry the 4.1-inch portrait QWERTY slider “in time for the holidays.” Notably, you won’t be able to purchase the Venue Pro directly from T-Mo stores, as Dell and its choice of handpicked retailers are set to handle the purchasing experience. Don’t look for any AT&T hookups, either — Dell has acknowledged T-Mobile as its “launch partner” for the device, giving team Magenta a second major exclusive , even if this one doesn’t last much beyond the launch period. Needless to say, we’ll seek to confirm the full spec sheet as soon as we can, though the officially known 1GHz Snapdragon chip and 5 megapixel imager agree with the Lightning’s original leak . For more on the fresher than fresh Dell Venue Pro, check out our hands-on pictures and impressions . Gallery: Dell Venue Pro for T-Mobile press images Continue reading Dell Venue Pro gives WP7 a 4.1-inch QWERTY slider with Lightning heritage and a T-Mobile future Dell Venue Pro gives WP7 a 4.1-inch QWERTY slider with Lightning heritage and a T-Mobile future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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